When the user of a mobile communications device such as a mobile telephone or a portable telephone is away from the user's usual location, entries stored in the user's phone book that relate to local services, for example the local police station, taxi firm, or takeaway, have limited use. Therefore, a system whereby the number is updated to give a service appropriate to the user's location is helpful to the user.
There are already location-based information services available on a number of networks. These services are generally accessed through WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) or i-Mode®, and require the users to perform a relatively complex operation to reach the telephone number for which they are looking. This deters many users from making use of location-based services at all and for others, it limits their use to when there is no other choice.
Furthermore, for users to take advantage of such services, they must have relatively advanced handsets (portable telephones), which many users do not have, and also be happy to use more complex features, which many users are not.
Modern communications devices include a facility, typically known as a phone book, for users to store frequently used telephone numbers. Usually the phone book is provided with a “number” and corresponding “name” field. The user can easily find the desired number by using the phone book. The phone book data can either be stored in the mobile telephone itself, or in the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card which is in the mobile telephone, or in both. The data from these different sources are typically presented to the user in a single display, the data being combined into a standard format by the mobile communications device.
Following the implementation of phase 2 of the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) standard, many modern mobile communications devices allow for the broadcast of short message strings which uses the short message service (SMS) cell broadcast channels. The SMS cell broadcast channels are designed to enable the simultaneous delivery of messages to multiple users in a particular area. A message is only delivered to a mobile communications device if it is within a predetermined range of one of the network communications antennas. A similar service has been provided for in 3G (third generation) systems, known as the service area broadcast message, and those skilled in the art will appreciate the applicability of an embodiment of the invention to both GSM and 3G systems.
The cell broadcast and service area broadcast services are different from the traditional SMS service because the SMS broadcast services are geographically-restricted, one-to-many services whereas the traditional SMS service is a one-to-one or one-to-few service.
Although these channels are optional, they are widely implemented. At present, most carry information describing the area in which the cell broadcasting signal is located, for example the name of the nearest town, the local dialing code, weather conditions, or traffic reports and the like. The information is formatted and broadcast to the user in exactly the same way as the conventional point-to-point SMS.
The broadcast message includes formatting that indicates the intended message destination within the mobile station. For example, it can sent a message explicitly to the SIM card rather than the mobile telephone handset.
Finally, following the implementation of phase 2 of the GSM standard, SIM or universal subscriber identity module (USIM) cards can carry their own applications (application programs). This enables SIMs to have a “SIM toolkit application.” SIM toolkits provide additional functionality to mobile phones. For example, they allow the user to pay for utility bills such as electricity bills or to access internet banking accounts. These may run automatically, or may be called by the user by accessing a special menu in the handset user interface. If such a menu is supported by the handset, the contents of the menu are provided by the SIM by way of the standards-defined SIM toolkit interface.